Keeping the postal service up & running, one stamp at a time. Usually silly, sometimes cranky, occasionally a mix of the two.

Pocky

I have some good ones to record this time, maybe especially Donald Duck & the load of toys!

I don’t think Donald gets drawn any better than he does in the creation of comics for the European market. This postcard came to me from Germany, thanks to a Postcrossing Forum tag, and the art is beautiful! The sender clearly took a look through my Postcrossing Favorites.

Another person who knows what I like is my post pal in England, who tells me she thought of me when she spotted the toy-jammed card in a gift shop at a railway station. Even better are the Mr. Men & Little Miss stamps she affixed to the back (shared below)!

The gigantic crystal ball in Dalian, China’s Friendship Circle must be an amazing thing to see at night. I received that thanks to another Postcrossing Forum tag, from a sender who says he likes collecting postcards & mint stamps. As for me, if I were to eat stamps, I’d prefer they be chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate–look, POCKY! It’s another swap-bot upcycled cardboard card, and it’s from a sender in Canada who tells me:

“At our local 7-11 is a surprisingly large selection of imported snacks. Usually, it’s things like Crunchies or nori crackers, but we occasionally get special Pocky snacks or limited edition Caplicos. These Almond Crush Pocky snacks are pretty good, but I think it would have been better with dark chocolate. That said, it’s a very attractive box!”

Certainly better with dark chocolate–that’s the kind of Pocky I like! By the way, occasionally one of my local Asian supermarkets will have a Pocky promotion, with people there to give out samples of the many different flavors, and even give away huge inflatable toy Pocky sticks that can be banged together to make a lot of noise! No, I have not adopted one of those–yet.

Postcard United time: The architect beaver comes from Sweden. The sender writes:

“Mr. Castor doing woodwork? These books are written by Lars Klinting and are very popular in many countries, not only here in Sweden. Castor is a beaver, as you can see, often a very handy one.”

I looked all of this up online, and eventually found that before becoming an author/illustrator, Lars Klinting was himself an achitect. Also, as you can see clearly illustrated on his Amazon page, this character Castor took on the English name of Bruno–before changing it to Harvey!

Then we’ve got those gnomes, who I am definitely mailing off to my friend who actually likes these creatures. That’s a Postcrossing card from Tallinn, Estonia, and the sender told me that on New Year’s Day, “the weather outside is unfamiliar warm in the winter to +6°C, no snow!” Well, brrr.

Second card in a week from my Snoopy postcard pal in Tokyo, Japan! This time, she has flattened out a Pocky box & turned into a colorful, special postcard for me.

Front & back. Hey, I just noticed there’s a stamp with leeks on it!

She tells me this is a limited-period edition package, and asked me if I’d ever seen Snoopy packages here in the U.S. I told her there had been several recently, all in association with the Peanuts Movie, so the art was in that style, instead of Schulz’s. Then I flashed back to when I was a kid, and Snoopy was the Zinger Zapper.

Pepero came to me from Singapore, in a swap-bot “food package postcard” trade. The sender writes,

“After I joined the swap I realized most of my fav snacks are in plastic/foil packaging instead of paper! I found this in the supermarket by chance and found it interesting! As you might know, it’s terribly hot and humid in Singapore (and so) chocolate melts easily. Thus this seemed like an ingenious design. Unfortunately the chocolate wasn’t very yummy. Pocky from Japan is still the champion for me! Have you tried Pocky or Pepero?”

I told her I can’t remember if I’ve tried Pepero (I think I have), but I am a Pocky fan. The construction of Pepero (choco-filled) is similar to Hello Panda, a product of Singapore that I tend to keep on stock–and use the packaging for postcards!

Pretz came my way from Shanghai, China, in a Postcrossing Forum food package postcard tag. This sender tells me her 5-year-old daughter likes to eat this product.